THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



57 



liberal use wherever possible. It might be best to use this 

 a year in advance of sowing alfalfa, and follow with clean 

 cultivation to overcome what weeds might be sown with 

 the manure, or, a good way is to top dress the alfalfa 

 during its first winter, using a manure spreader and apply- 

 ing the manure evenly without large chunks that might 

 smother the young plants. On impoverished soils, we 

 would recommend preparation for alfalfa one or two years 

 in advance, growing such crops as crimson clover, mam- 

 moth clover, cow peas, Canada field peas, or soja beans, 

 and preferably turning them under or else pasturing them 

 off, so as to give the soil the greatest benefit possible from 

 them. 



We recommend inoculation, not that it is always 

 necessary, but it is an inexpensive process, and in five 

 cases out of six it will actually pay. 



Having determined that our soil is sweet, well drained, 

 and sufficiently supplied with humus, the only questions 

 that remain are: The preparation of a good seed-bed; 

 sowing at the proper time of year; and, the use of good 

 seed. For the seed-bed, it is essential that the ground be 

 carefully fitted. It must be plowed, unless it is old ground, 

 such as corn stubble, which may be thoroughly disked 

 instead of plowing. It is better to firm the subsoil a lit- 

 tle, so that only the surface is really loose. This, because 

 if the entire soil is very loose, the seed may be planted 

 too deep, and also because the alfalfa seems to prefer the 

 subsurface being a trifle firmed. 



On Woodland Farm, for many years it has been our 

 custom to sow alfalfa at oat-seeding time, about the first 

 week in April, using beardless spring barley as a nurse 

 crop. The barley is usually cut for hay the last of June, 

 and after this we sometimes secure a good cutting of 

 alfalfa hay the first season, although we do not count on 

 this, and are not disappointed if we do not obtain it. We 

 sow about three to five pecks barley to the acre on real 

 rich ground not more than one bushel and eighteen to 

 twenty pounds of alfalfa seed at the same time, usually 

 using a disk drill and throwing the alfalfa seed in front of 

 the drill, unless the ground is very loose, in which case 

 .we throw the seed farther back to prevent its being 

 covered too deeply. The alfalfa seed should be covered 

 about an inch. The advantages of this system are that 

 the rains usually come about the right time for the young 

 alfalfa, which makes a strong growth throughout the 

 entire season, generally giving us with the barley enough 

 hay the first year to pay the expenses of planting, and 

 goes into winter into vigorous shape with about ten inches 

 or a foot of stalk standing, enough to hold the snow 



throughout the winter and induce a fine, vigorous start in 

 the spring. We find barley to be the best nurse crop 

 obtainable. It takes the place of the weeds that would 

 otherwise come, gives us some very excellent feed, and 

 with us, does the alfalfa good and no injury. Oats are 

 not so good, because they shade the ground more and 

 are much more inclined to lodge. We find that the barley 

 hay with the small amount of alfalfa we obtain with it 

 makes a forage second only to the pure alfalfa itself. We 

 cut this when the barley is in the milk or dough stage. 

 It is not always necessary to cut the barley for hay, as 

 it ripens its grain about July 12th in this latitude, and it is 

 rarely that alfalfa is suffering much by that time. Many 

 of our neighbors cut their barley for grain, and still secure 

 admirable stands of alfalfa. Where no nurse crop is used, 

 it is seldom safe to plant alfalfa before the 20th of June, be- 

 cause the weeds will almost certainly choke the young 

 plants, and no amount of mowing will prevent their doing 

 so. 



For summer seeding we recommend as a good 

 method, having the alfalfa follow a crop of early potatoes, 

 or it may be possible to plow wheat stubble early enough 

 to secure a stand before winter. An excellent way is to 

 plow the ground early in the spring, harrow it as fre- 

 quently as the weeds appear, and sow the alfalfa during 

 July. If the rains come right, such alfalfa should make 

 excellent growth before winter and be certain to succeed. 

 We really believe that where beardless spring barley may 

 be used as a nurse crop, the early spring seeding is 

 advisable in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 

 New York, and much of Pennsylvania. The late seeding 

 is certainly preferable in some of the New England states, 

 in Virginia, and the states south of the Ohio river. The 

 reason for the late seeding in these states is that their 

 climate seems to be such that the alfalfa thrives better 

 when sown late than when sown early, and also in part 

 of these places quack or crab grass and other weeds will 

 give so much trouble that the early seeding is almost sure 

 to fail on account of them. The farther south one goes, 

 the later is it safe to seed alfalfa. We have many custom- 

 ers in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and 

 Texas, who seed as late as November 1st, but their 

 winters are so mild that the alfalfa never winter-kills, 

 and it comes on the next spring in just as good shape as 

 if it had been sown earlier in the season. 



We find that on nearly all soils, phosphate does 

 alfalfa more good than any other fertilizer. We recom- 

 mend basic slag on soils that are acid and where you do 

 not wish to sow lime, or untreated phosphate rock on 



An Alfalfa Field in Bloom. 



